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Sinn Féin call for Hain statement on missing files

Sinn Fein Policing Spokesperson, North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly has called on
the British Secretary of State Peter Hain to make a statement after it was
confirmed that his details were among files stolen from Castlereagh last
year found in the possession of Loyalists.

Mr Kelly said:

"Across
Belfast a large number of republicans have now been visited and informed
that their lives are in danger from loyalist paramilitaries who had obtained
their personal details. This information comes from the Castlereagh
collusion file passed to unionist paramilitaries by the RIR and covered up
by British Ministers, the PSNI and British Army over the past 16 months.

"I
have requested urgent meetings with both the British and Irish governments
to discuss this matter. It is unacceptable that this information has been
the hands of Loyalists for 16 months yet only now are people being warned
that their lives are threatened and are being provided with only minimal
information.

"The silence from Peter Hain on this matter is
deafening. If there is to any confidence that the British government is
prepared to take the issue of collusion seriously then we need at the very
least a statement from Peter Hain. I would also question why information on
public representatives is being held in these files in the first place.

"The
British government have been dishonest about this entire matter. When I
questioned the previous security minister, Ian Pearson, about this matter he
attempted to down play it and did not even inform myself or my party
colleague Margaret McClenaghan, who accompanied me to the meeting, that our
names where on these files. We need to know how many names are contained in
these stolen files and how many people have now been informed that their
lives are under threat.

"This situation is a scandal. The British
government through the NIO are complicit in the cover up of this. It
provides clear evidence of collusion. It is for that reason that a separate
inquiry is required to get to the truth." ENDS